Clamping down: Hilltoppers smother Gilford with payback ‘D’

SOMERSWORTH — Feb. 22 was marked on the calendar in black Sharpie — the rematch with Gilford, which handed the Somersworth High School boys basketball team a stinging overtime loss on Feb. 7.

The Hilltoppers used that loss to feed their fire Friday and they shut down Gilford, 61-40.

Somersworth used a 21-2 surge in the second quarter to build a 35-12 lead, and led by as many as 30 midway through the third (51-21) as part of a monster 37-11 run.

“We’ve been thinking about that for a while,” said Somersworth senior guard Drew Francoeur, who scored a game-high 23 points. “That was a tough loss for us.”

The Hilltoppers (13-5) are locked into the No. 7 seed for the upcoming Division III tournament and will host a second-round game next Thursday. Gilford fell to 15-3 and will be the fourth seed.

Somersworth lost at Gilford 52-47, a game they led by five with 30 seconds to play in regulation. A controversial call led to a technical on the Hilltoppers and the Golden Eagles were able to respond to tie the game and win in OT.

“There were some hard feelings after the last time we played,” Somersworth coach Lorne Lucas said. “We weren’t going to leave anything up to question. We were really focused and you could see that.”

Playing as well as it’s played all year, Somersworth’s defense held Gilford to 1 of 8 shooting in the second quarter and forced eight turnovers.

“Defense, we’ve been preaching defense all week,” said Somersworth senior guard Kevin Clougherty. “There’s a couple of kids over there that we know can score. We really had to stop them. ... It’s huge to win this. After we lost up there, we definitely circled this one and wanted to get this one back and show them who is the better team.”

Up 14-10 going into the frame, the Hilltoppers were sparked by senior guard Drew Francoeur, who scored 13 of his 23 points in the first half.

He was joined in double figures by Clougherty with 14 points and Ricky Pirotta with 11, seven in the second quarter. Isaiah Gaddy chipped in with eight.

Somersworth scored the first 11 points of the second to go up 25-10 before the Golden Eagles’ Rich Edson scored his team’s only points of the quarter with an inside bucket at 2:01.

Somersworth finished the frame on a 10-0 run.

“The kids executed,” Lucas added. “They didn’t give up second shots and then crashed the boards. That was the difference.”

Getting Tyler Kretschmar was big in that regard. The 6-4 senior forward made his return after missing a month with an injury and was indispensable inside on both ends of the floor.

Gaddy hit a 3-pointer and then stole the ball and fed Pirotta for a bucket. Clougherty drove for two points, Francoeur fed Hunter Kretschmar for a deuce, and Clougherty was fouled at the buzzer after stealing the ball and hit 1 of 2 free throws to send the Hilltoppers into the locker room up 23.

“We forced the ball the way we wanted it to go,” Lucas said. “We noticed on film they like to go right and we were not going to let them go right. We forced them to their left. We never let (Joyce) get comfortable and they saw him uncomfortable and they didn’t know how to react.”

Somersworth started the third quarter on a 16-9 run to widen the lead to 51-21, sparked by nine points from Francoeur.

“We just wanted to keep our foot on the gas and not let up one bit,” Francoeur said. “We wanted to bury them and end the game right there.”

Gilford eventually found its feet, but it was too late.

Down 55-30 after three stops, Gilford cut the margin to 17 (57-40) with 2:26 to play.